Keep potted. Hoyas will surprise you.

Josh

I typically lose leafless vines when trying to root, but every now and then, one roots and sprouts a side shoot and grows. I say never give up until the fat lady sings AND pigs fly!

Denise in Omaha

It used to have 2 leaves but they fell off

Nat,

I got a cutting last spring and as I pulled it out of the package, the one leaf on it popped off! I was so mad at myself because it was a most beautiful leaf. Well, I planted both the bare stem and the popped leaf, but the bare stem soon died. The leaf rooted, but I've done this a hundred times before and never gotten a leaf only to produce new growth (though they almost always root...) But I figured I'd keep it for a few months and if nothing happened, I'd toss it before I needed my space back in the fall. To my amazement, about 2 months later I found a little sprig if new growth emerging from the soil! Just goes to show ya...

Denise in Omaha

@cyclonenat
Just keep everything rooted until it either dies off or puts on new growth. Hoyas are usually pretty resilient.
Here's an H. onychoides I got in the mail that promptly lost all of its leaves. You can see that it's put on some new growth, although the new leaves are smaller than normal.
The leaves should return to normal size once the plant recovers.
{{gwi:994602}}

@denise
Here's one of the H. onychoides leaves that fell off. It's put out growth faster than I'd expected.
{{gwi:994603}}

Rennet!
Your mix looks excellent!
And I like your pebble trays, too...

Josh

Rennet, it's interesting to me that you grow your plants in terra cotta pots, sheathed in plastic pots. Is this so you have the option of unsheathing them to let them dry out faster? Or what is going on here?

@greenman28
Thanks, decent potting mix is hard to come by around here so I make my own.

@greedyghost
The pots are for several things:
They hold the bottom of the pots out of the water in the pebble tray and prevent water from getting trapped in the inner pot. It helps with drainage and prevents rot.

The terra cotta pot actually has a wick inserted into the drainage hole. The plastic pot holds the terra cotta pot up but allows the wick to contact water in the tray and act as a self watering pot. It also helps keep the potting mix evenly moist by trapping moisture around the pot.

I mostly use the plastic pots to extend the time between waterings for when I have to leave my apartment for extended periods of time. They last about 3 days between waterings without the plastic pots, and around a week with them. For longer periods away, I bag up the plants loosely and leave the bottom of the plastic pots submerged in water to extend the time between watering to about 2 weeks.

"@greenman28
Thanks, decent potting mix is hard to come by around here so I make my own."

- Necessity is the mother of invention! ;)


Josh

Thanks for outlining your system for me, Rennet. You have a nice flexible approach.